The Source
by pprbckwrtr
Summary: Cindy would do more than go to jail for her latest source. Little do the others know, they all would.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: James Patterson created the characters. I'm just borrowing, not profiting.

* * *

Jill walked up behind Lindsay at the coffee stand. "How was your weekend?"

"Uneventful." Lindsay motioned to the barista to add a coffee to her order before turning back to Jill. "In other words, great." Lindsay added with a smile as she paid for the two coffees.

As they walked up the steps they noticed Jacobi coming down toward them. "We have another one. The body was discovered early this morning down in the park." Lindsay turned and followed him to the car as Jill continued into the building.

* * *

Lindsay ducked under the crime scene tape and moved toward Claire who was stooped next to the body, the second homeless death in the park in a week. As she surveyed the crowd she noticed this death had already attracted twice as much media as last week's. No matter who the victims were multiple murders in the city's tourist hot spot was not good for the mayor which eventually would be bad for her, so she knew that if these deaths were connected then she would have to solve them fast. "What've we got?" She asked as Claire stood to greet her.

"Same as the others. He took one hell of a beating." She gave a sympathetic look at the body. "Poor Martin."

Lindsay furrowed her brow as she moved forward to look at the body, "is that the elephant man?"

"Yes." Claire said with a sad nod.

They had met Martin about a year before. Lindsay was working on the murder of Theresa Woo, a reporter at _The Register_. That was the case that brought Cindy into their 'club', since she was the one who could decipher Theresa's notebooks. Once Cindy figured out that Theresa's notes about _the elephant man_ referred to the homeless Martin the whole case fell into place. And now he was dead and Cindy was anxiously waiting for information on the other side of the crime tape.

"Do you have a time?" Lindsay asked

"Sometime last night. I'll get an exact time back at the office." Claire motioned to the techs that the body could be loaded up.

Jacobi walked over to join them, "Same as last week, no one saw a thing. Park patrol found the body this morning as they were rushing off the people sleeping on the benches."

"Okay. Let CSU finish up and then we can head back to the station."

"You gonna talk to the vultures?" Jacobi asked motioning to the media.

"No." Lindsay responded as she took out her phone and sent Cindy a text. _Meet us in Claire's office_. "It's not like we have anything to tell them.

* * *

In the morgue Lindsay did her usual hovering while Claire performed the autopsy.

"You were fifteen feet away from me and you text me. Still afraid of being seen with the media?" Cindy asked with a laugh as she came in.

Lindsay spun around to face her while trying to block Cindy's view of the body. "Afraid? No." she responded with a cautious smile.

"What's wrong?" Cindy asked as she moved forward.

Lindsay moved to stop her, "the victim from this morning."

"Yeah?"

"It's Martin."

"What?" Cindy pushed forward to look for herself, once verified she moved away. "I just talked to him yesterday." She saw the questions on Lindsay's face, "he had information on the attacks."

"Attacks? You mean last week's?"

"He said there were others, last week was just the first death."

Lindsay thought for a second, "I don't remember any prior attacks."

"They weren't reported, I found that the homeless trust cops about as much as bikers do."

"Have you found the other victims?"

"Not yet, Martin was going to help me." Cindy said quietly as the tears filled her eyes.

Claire removed her gloves and moved away from the table to give Cindy a sympathetic hug. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks," Cindy responded when the hug ended.

"I'll send some unis down to the park to talk to people."

Cindy shook her head, "They won't talk to the cops. If it wasn't for Martin they wouldn't even talk to me."

"Well we have to try."

Cindy looked over to Martin's body for a second, "I think I may have an idea to get them to talk to me," she said as she moved to the door.

"Cindy?" Lindsay asked concerned.

"Don't worry." Cindy responded as she left.

Lindsay and Claire just stared at each other, "how can we not?" Lindsay asked breaking the silence.

* * *

Two days after Martin's death Lindsay was laying on her couch with Martha curled up in her arms. The buzzing of her phone broke the silence, she glanced at the clock, 11:45pm, before answering.

"Boxer." She paused for Jacobi to fill her in, "okay I'll be there in fifteen."

Lindsay got to the crime scene in the park just as the ambulance was pulling away. She surveyed the crowed as she walked over to Jacobi. "What've we got?"

"Homeless woman was attacked, same as before, but a witness called it in. A unit arrived in time to run off the attackers, they got away but the woman is still alive."

"Do we know who called it in?" Lindsay asked

"Nobody has come forward."

Lindsay was looking around the scene when she noticed a group of about six, seemingly, homeless people standing on the other side of the tape watching the scene. As she started toward them they began to move as though they were leaving, she jogged over, "wait. Does anyone know this woman?" By the time she made it over the group had disbanded, except for one familiar looking redhead. "What are you doing here?" Lindsay sighed as she took in Cindy's homeless attire.

"It was the only way to get them to talk to me." Cindy tried to justify.

"Have you been down here since Martin's death."

"Yeah" Cindy admitted bracing for impact.

Lindsay just shook her head, there was so much she wanted to say, or yell, but through clinched teeth she settled on, "have you found out anything?"

Cindy smiled, realizing that Lindsay's desire to solve the case was giving her a momentary reprieve from a scolding, "I've heard from a few people that they have noticed kids hanging around."

"Young kids?"

"To most of the people I've talked to, I'm a kid..." she scowled at Lindsay's smile, "so I haven't been able to get a good idea of the age."

"Do they think that these kids are responsible?"

"Nobody has seen any of the attacks, but they avoid the kids if they see them."

"Well they probably won't come back tonight so why don't I give you a ride home."

Cindy could see by Lindsay's glare that it really wasn't a question, "okay." She said with a sigh.


	2. Chapter 2

The next afternoon Cindy sat at her desk working the story for the latest homeless attack. She had spent the morning in the park and at the hospital gathering as much information on the woman as she could. She hoped that if she could show who the victims really were then the public would hopefully start to care about these attacks. She was so intent on getting the article done right that it took her a few moments to realize someone was hovering near her desk.

"Derek, what are you doing here?" Cindy asked, surprised to see Claire's 17 year old son.

"I need to talk to you," he responded while glancing around the room, "privately."

Confused by not only his visit but also his demeanor Cindy stood, "There's a break-room down the hall, I'm sure we can find a quiet table." He followed her quietly down the hall, once in the small room she motioned him toward a table in the far corner, "I'll grab a couple cokes while you go sit down." Derek moved away as he was instructed.

With two drinks in hand Cindy joined him at the table. "Okay, so what's up?" She smiled at him, trying to ease his tension level.

After staring at his drink for a few seconds he finally began, "I have information on the attacks on the homeless people."

Trying to mask her surprise Cindy reacted calmly, "why come to me? Why not tell your parents, or Lindsay?" When he looked at her Cindy wasn't sure if she was still seeing nervousness or if it had changed to fear.

"I don't want to upset my parents and if I tell the police then they will know who told on them."

"These people are killing, the police need to stop them."

"I know," Derek almost sounded defeated, "I don't want my family to get hurt. I just thought, maybe, if I tell you then you can go to the police without using my name."

She reached over and took his hand as she out a contemplative breath, "okay, lets start with you telling me what you know. Then I will figure out how to deal with it."

He looked up and smiled at her. "My friend Bobby has an older brother in college. Last night Bobby asked me if I wanted to hang out with his brother and some friends. I thought it would be fun so I said yes. We met up with them at the park. A couple of the guys had baseball bats, which I didn't think was too strange at first, but they were all wearing dark clothes. Then Bobby's brother looks at us and says 'you boys are gonna grow up fast tonight.' I saw the girl pull a camera out of her bag and she says 'let's get going.'" Derek looked away and took a drink before looking back to Cindy, "I swear I had no idea what they were going to do."

"I know." Cindy smiled reassuringly, "What happened?"

"We walked through the park until we saw a woman by herself. One of the guys says 'she looks good' and then they started moving toward her. I just froze, I looked at Bobby and told him that I wasn't going to do this and I took off. When I got back to my car I called the police. I heard mom talking about the attack with dad this morning."

"Calling the police probably saved that woman's life. They beat her pretty bad but the police got there before they killed her."

"I should have stopped them."

"No, they could have killed you. You did the right thing." She squeezed his hand. "I'm still not completely sure why you can't go to the police. Once they get arrested they aren't going to be able to hurt you."

Derek took a deep breath, "one of the boys was Henry Vandeweghe."

Cindy's eyes went wide, "as in Judge Vandeweghe?" Derek just nodded. Unfortunately Cindy knew this judge, and he was not a fan having thrown her into jail once for contempt of court. "Do you have the other names?"

"My friend Bobby Johnson and his brother Joe. The other two I only have first names, Paul and Rachel."

"Have you talked to Bobby?"

"Yeah, today at school. I told him that I didn't call the cops and that I took off because of my mom. I said that I knew she would investigate and that she had friends on the case. I convinced him that I was afraid I would leave evidence behind and then they would get caught."

Cindy nodded, "good thinking. Keep treating him normally, I'll figure out what to do." She stood up from the table. "Wait. You said the girl had a camera. Do you think they are taping the attacks?"

"I assumed so." Derek stood and they began to walk out of the break room.

"Do think you could find out what they are doing with the video? But only if you can do it without getting yourself into trouble."

"I'll try."

Cindy walked him to the elevator, "don't worry." As they stood on opposite sides of the closing doors she smiled at him, "we'll figure this out." Once back at her desk she sat staring at the screen, conflicted. She still wanted to give her victims a voice but how far could she push this new information.

* * *

The next morning Cindy walked into Claire's office to find, Jill and Lindsay already there. "You summoned?" an irritated Cindy asked Lindsay as she moved past them and slumped onto the couch.

"You couldn't have called me before you printed this." Lindsay asked waving the morning paper at her.

"What? I told you yesterday that someone mentioned kids."

"This is more specific than 'some kids', you have the number of attackers, their gender. Also you didn't mention anything yesterday about the attacks being recorded. You didn't think I might want to know."

"I just found out yesterday, I thought it was important to get it in. I don't get why you are mad at me?"

"I'm not mad, I'm frustrated because I just spent twenty minutes having Tom ask why you know more than I do. We have been in the park since the first murder and haven't gotten anything."

"It's not my fault that I'm easier to talk to than you are." Cindy responded with a smile, trying to alleviate the tension before her next bombshell.

Lindsay just leaned back in her chair and shook her head.

Jill leaned forward in her chair next to Lindsay and looked at Cindy, "well Claire and I are mad."

"What for?" Cindy asked surprised.

"How long were you out in the park?" Claire asked in her concerned motherly voice.

"It was the only way to get people to talk to me." Cindy gave Claire a quick glance before looking to the floor. "I was perfectly fine the whole time," she added quietly.

"Well its done now." Jill informed Cindy before turning to Lindsay. "So how do we find these kids?"

Lindsay leaned forward again, "I was thinking we could take a cue from Cindy and send some guys to hang in the park and hope they show up."

"Um..." Cindy reluctantly began, still staring the floor. Three sets of curious eyes turned to her. She gave Claire a brief look before turning to Lindsay, "I may have their names."

Lindsay went to stand up when Jill grabbed her arm, "You have the names of the attackers." Jill asked in a calm quiet voice. Cindy reached into her pocket and took out a small piece of paper. This time Jill was no match for Lindsay when she stood up and moved toward Cindy.

"How did you get those?" Lindsay asked as she grabbed for the paper, only to have Cindy jerk it away from her.

"No, that's my rule. You don't get my source."

"You aren't pulling that this time. If there is a witness I need to talk to him." Lindsay demanded holding her hand out for the paper.

"No. I will give you the names but you have to figure out how to deal with them without my source."

Cindy put the names in Lindsay's hand while shooting another quick glance to Claire, to which Claire gave a curious glance back.

Lindsay studied the names, "Henry Vandeweghe?" she asked with a frustrated sigh.

"As in judge?" Jill asked as she stood to look at the names. Cindy merely nodded.

"If a judge's son is involved then I have to have solid proof. I have to talk to your source. How do I know I can trust this information?"

"No." Cindy replied adamantly. "Did you ever consider my source might be someone worth protecting." This time Claire caught her glance which made Cindy looked away quickly.

"What are the other names?" Claire asked, intrigued by Cindy's desire to look at her but unwillingness to do so.

"Joe Johnson, Paul and Rachel." Lindsay responded to Claire then turned back to Cindy. "No last names on those two?" Cindy shook her head. "Your article said possibly four males, is there another one?"

"Joe has a younger brother but I couldn't confirm he was involved." This only elicited a glare from Lindsay. "I don't know the name." Cindy stared at the floor as she answered the unspoken question this time forcing herself to not look to Claire.

"Fine." Lindsay accepted that she wasn't going to get the source's name at this point, "I'll take the names and Jacobi and I will figure out how we can use them." She turned to Jill, "why don't you come with me to talk to him and Tom. I want to make sure we can use what we find." As they were leaving the office Lindsay gave Cindy one last look but continued talking to Jill. "Plus we may need to find a way to get the source's name." Cindy understood the meaning and simply shook her head.

When the two were gone Claire looked to Cindy, who was making a move to leave. "Do you know anything about the younger brother?"

"Not really," Cindy responded quickly. "I should go before Lindsay throws me in jail."

"Wait." Claire stood up and moved around her desk. "Derek is on the track team with a Bobby Johnson and I think he has an older brother."

Cindy reluctantly looked at her, "it's a common name. I'm sure its not the same one." Cindy winced when she realized she just gave the undisclosed information.

"If he's not the same then what were all the quick glances for? If Derek is involved I need to know." Claire asked almost begging for the answers she didn't want.

Cindy laid her hand on Claire's arm, "you know I can't lie to you so please don't make me try. Trust me, you have raised two great boys, neither one would do anything to hurt you or anyone else."

"Cindy?"

"I will tell you this. The person in question is having hard time because he feels bad running when he saw what was going to happen." Claire went to turn away but Cindy held onto her arm. "But I think it was pretty brave, they could have tried to stop him. He ran and called the police and I think that may have saved that woman's life."

"But why not come to us? Why you?"

"Because of who's involved. He's afraid that the judge could make trouble for his parents." Cindy looked Claire in the eyes and smiled, adding, "not that I know who they are." Claire tried to smile back. "Now I really do have to go because while I am willing to go to jail to protect my source I'd like to make it somewhat difficult for Lindsay to find me."

Claire pulled her into a quick hug, "you shouldn't be in this position."

"Don't worry," Cindy said as she moved toward the door, with her hand on the knob she turned back, "trust me."


	3. Chapter 3

On the walk up to Tom's office Lindsay formulated a plan to talk to the suspects without reveling that they were suspects. Once inside the office she explained to Tom and Jacobi how they came across the names and gave them her plan. "Jacobi and I will take about half a dozen uniforms and head to the campus. We will try to track down the names on the list while the uniforms interview random students under the impression that college age males were seen fleeing the park after an attack."

Tom leaned back in his chair, arms crossed "or we could just arrest the reporter and get the name of the witness."

"I thought of that, but she won't give it up. Besides she is more valuable out of jail." Lindsay informed him.

"How do you figure?" Jacobi asked.

"So far we have come up empty and I know she's out there digging up something."

Tom stood and moved to the front of his desk, "Look, I know she's your friend but we are going to need that name."

"I know. Jill's going to get the paperwork together and if it comes to it I will personally arrest her."

Jill looked to Lindsay, "I am?" When Lindsay nodded Jill looked to Tom, "I am."

"All right, we'll play it your way for now." Tom relented.

Lindsay and Jill followed Jacobi out of the office. "Linz, are you sure you want me to get this ball rolling?" Jill asked tentatively.

"We may not have a choice." Lindsay responded as she followed Jacobi down the stairs.

"How do you intend to speak to these kids and still have it appear to be random questioning? We can't exactly get their class lists, track them down and have them believe we just ran into them." Jacobi asked as they were headed to the car. "We don't even know what they look like."

"I actually had an idea on that." Lindsay informed him as she pulled out her phone.

* * *

Lindsay was back at her desk by 5:30 that evening, having spent the day on campus interviewing students about the attacks and the possibility of a website airing the videos. She and Jacobi had been on campus for about two hours before she received information on where she could find Henry Vandeweghe and Joe Johnson, along with candid pictures of them sent to her phone. The other two kids would be harder to find considering they didn't have their last names.

When they spoke to the Vandeweghe kid he assured them that he had no information on the attacks, and said he wasn't really following the case too closely. Lindsay had also noticed, during their brief conversation, that he had managed to mention his father, the judge, multiple times.

It took them about an hour to track down Joe, but lucky for them he was with his girlfriend Rachel, the third possible suspect. The girl seemed pretty nervous during the questioning, but they didn't give up anything that could link them to the attacks. They spent a few more hours talking to random students, turning up absolutely nothing. A fact that Jacobi reminded Lindsay of the entire drive back to the station, and again as he left for the evening.

So now Lindsay sat at her desk cursing the fact that they had suspects and possible video proof of their guilt and she couldn't do a damn thing about it. Not exactly nothing, there was one thing she could do, something that Tom was pushing her to do, but for all of her tough talk it was something that she really did not want to do. Until the phone rang. "Boxer."

"Did you get anything on campus today?" Cindy asked hopefully.

"A grumpy partner and a pissed off boss. But nothing that I actually wanted." Lindsay replied with a smirk.

"I really am sorry Lindsay. But I do have something that might brighten your mood."

"What's that?"

"A certain website."

Lindsay sat up straighter in her chair, "how the hell did you get that?"

"I can't tell you."

"Damn it Cindy. Do you know how hard I have had to fight Tom not to arrest you. We spent all day on campus and came back with nothing and he was none to happy about it. And now I have to go tell him that you found the videos."

"Hey at least I'm telling you, I could just print it tomorrow but I'm smart enough to know that that's not right." Cindy knew this was hard for Lindsay but she also knew any other reporter would just run with the story. As much as she loved having her by-line on the front page she also loved being a part of catching the criminals. "And, by the way, you can't have it both ways. You can't call me to track these kids down for you and then get mad when I find stuff that you can't." Those last words came out a little harsher than intended and she knew immediately they wouldn't go over well.

"I want you in here first thing in the morning." And with that Lindsay hung up. She sat back in her chair, ran her hands through her hair, and went back to cursing this case.

* * *

As the Washburns sat around the dinner table that evening most of the conversation was left to Ed and the boys while Claire pushed her food around her plate. "Hey babe, did you have a rough day." Ed finally asked her.

Claire looked up, "yeah, I'm sorry. I know I'm supposed to leave it at the office but its just this case. And it doesn't help that Lindsay in on the verge of having Cindy arrested." she directed the last words toward Derek.

Ed gave a small laugh, "again. What did she do this time?"

"She has a witness to the attacks in the park but won't give the name." As Ed's smile faded she looked to Nate, her younger son, "we shouldn't talk about this now."

"If she has a witness she should give the name, or the coward should come forward on his own." Ed said forcefully, instinctively falling back into cop mode. Just because Ed was in a wheelchair and unable to be on the police force didn't mean he had stopped thinking like a cop.

"Ed," Claire began harshly, after a quick look at the boys she softened her tone, "she said it wasn't that easy, that this was someone worth protecting."

"She won't go to jail will she?" Nate asked quietly.

"Don't worry honey," Claire soothed. "She'll be fine. I'm sorry I mentioned it." She gave a fake smile as she looked around the table, "so boys, how was school."

The rest of the dinner was accompanied by small talk about school and sports. After dinner Claire was alone in the kitchen loading the dishwasher when Derek came in. "Here's the last of the dishes" he said placing them on the counter next to her.

She straightened up to face him, "thanks." She pulled him into a warm embrace, "I'm sorry if I worried you, and your father doesn't think..."

"Mom.." he said cutting her off.

"It's okay." she pulled away to look him in the eyes, "Cindy told me not to worry and to trust her." She cupped his face in her hands, "and I do. This will all get worked out, Lindsay has the names and she will stop those kids."

Derek threw his arms around his mother, "I didn't know what to do," he said in a whisper.

"Shh, it's okay baby."


	4. Chapter 4

When Lindsay walked into Claire's office the next morning she found her friend sitting behind her desk, although she wasn't working just staring. "Working hard?" She asked as she sat in a chair across from the desk.

A startled Claire jerked her head toward the question, "hm?"

"What are you thinking about? Something wrong?"

"No. Just tired I guess." Claire lied as she rotated her chair and rested her elbows on her desk. "I've been trying to call Cindy, have you seen her?"

"She's upstairs."

"Why didn't she come down with you." Lindsay stared at her, "Lindsay" Claire said with a knowing sigh as her hands came up to massage her temples.

"What? We spent all day yesterday investigating these kids without tipping our hand. And because of the Vandeweghe kid we are being extra careful that we will be able to use any evidence we do find. And you know what she does." Lindsay paused for a second but really didn't expect an answer, "she calls last night with the website where the videos of these attacks are being posted. And now the techs are trying to trace the site back to whoever posted them. And I don't even know if we will be able to get the site admitted into evidence because we don't know how she came to this information."

Claire stood up without a word and left the office. Lindsay jumped out of her chair and followed, "where are you going?" Claire just walked up the stairs in silence, eventually making her way to the holding cell. Confused, she looked to Lindsay when she saw the cell was empty.

"Claire?" Cindy jumped up from the chair next to Lindsay's desk. "I'm really fine don't worry about it."

"What the hell is going on?" Lindsay asked as she stood watching her friends intently.

"You can tell her and we will deal with it." Claire assured quietly.

Lindsay looked around to make sure no one was too close, as she moved closer to Claire "do you know who she is protecting?"

"No she doesn't." Cindy demanded as Claire nodded her head.

"I've got the paperwork ready if you're sure this is what you want to do." Jill announced as she walked up behind her friends. She looked around at them and realized that she was interrupting something, "Lindsay?"

"I don't know." Lindsay replied as she closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead.

"Well before you make your decision I should inform you that Vandeweghe is on the bench today and I can't guarantee whether we will face him or not." Jill said trying to guide Lindsay's decision.

"Lindsay..." Claire began quietly.

"Claire..." Cindy cut in more forcefully.

"Does someone want to tell me what I interrupted." Jill interjected.

"We need to talk." Lindsay ushered them all into the interrogation room. Once they were seated around the table she looked between Claire and Cindy, "well?"

Claire began slowly, "she didn't actually give me the name but.."

"Wait," Cindy cut in. "I'm still not giving you the name," Lindsay gave her a frustrated sigh, "but I will tell you what I can." She continued calmly. "The day after the attack on the woman a young man came to see me at work." Claire placed her hand on Cindy's

Noticing the movement Jill asked, "Someone you know?"

Cindy looked at her, "this young man has a friend named Bobby Johnson. And the night of the attack they were hanging out and thought they would be cool and hang out with Bobby's brother and some of his college friends. They met at the park and before he knew it they were moving to attack the woman. He ran and called the police."

"If he called the police then why not come in now?" Lindsay asked

"Because he knew one of the boys was the son of a judge, and he didn't know what kind of trouble could be made for his family."

Lindsay looked to Claire, "that's crazy. What kind of trouble could he make if his son is a murderer."

"He's only 17, he doesn't know." Claire answered.

"Its not completely unfounded," all eyes turned to Jill, "Vandeweghe is going do whatever he has to for his son."

"I just don't know why you didn't tell me from the beginning." Lindsay asked Cindy. "I could have kept his name out of it, and I would have had more faith in the information."

"Gee thanks." Cindy responded with a smile. "Look, Linz, I just thought it would be easier if only one of us had to lie. You could get into a lot more trouble than I would for withholding this." Cindy said as she looked between Lindsay and Jill. "Plus I promised him."

"You were on your way to jail." Lindsay said as though Cindy had forgotten that fact.

"Going to jail to protect a source gets attention, it would have brought the case to the front page."

They all looked at her with surprise. "You were ready to end up in jail the whole time," Jill said with amazement. "But wouldn't that have put more pressure on D..." she stopped short of the name.

"Not necessarily. How long did we not know who Deep Throat was? I told him no matter what happens just to let me handle it. Unfortunately there are some people who see right through me." Cindy gave Claire a wink which in turn made Claire hold her hand more tightly.

"So this could still work," Lindsay said trying to piece together a plan.

"No." Claire interjected.

"We'll make sure his name stays out of it." Lindsay assured.

"This isn't about protecting Derek." Claire turned to Cindy, "I am not going to have you go to jail to protect us. Derek will come forward and we will deal with this."

"Too bad they were smart enough to stay out of their videos. We need to catch them in the act." Jill offered.

"What about the videos?" Claire asked.

"We got into the site to view them but there wasn't anything incriminating. We traced it back to the campus library, but it was set up under a phony name. We are going over the times the videos were posted and the usage logs in the library, but it may take a few days. There's a good chance with us being on campus that they will just go underground."

"Maybe we could give them a reason to come back out." Cindy said quietly, formulating plan B.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Lindsay asked cautiously.

Claire studied them for a second, "I think I'm going to like this plan less."

"It could work. We have Derek pass along information that his mom has a reporter friend who is on the verge of solving the case." Lindsay begins explaining.

"But she won't give her info to the cops because she wants the story." Cindy added.

"Like a crazy person she hangs out in the park at night." Lindsay laughs.

"Yeah, I think I prefer the safety of jail." Claire sighed.

"No, this is better. Jill's right, we need to catch them in the act. Even if Derek did come forward the judge could make the case go bad."

"I agree, this case has to be tight." Jill tried to convince Claire. Then she turned to Cindy, "Just don't do anything stupid."

Cindy shot her a look, "me?"

"Twenty bucks." Jill said with a smile.

"pfft." was all Cindy could manage.

"Don't worry about it we'll have a full detail in the park." Lindsay stood "I'm going to go okay this with Tom." As she left the room she noticed Tom and Jacobi standing by her desk.

"I'm already on it," Tom told her before she could say anything.

Lindsay gave a quick look back to the interrogation room, "you were listening?"

"I may not be a fan of the reporter's but I do care about Claire and her family." Tom informed her as he crossed his arms. "Plus I'm all for catching these little bastards, anyway necessary."

Lindsay gave him a warm smile, "thanks." And she headed back to set the plan.

"That was quick," Claire said as Lindsay came back into the room

"Tom was already on it." Lindsay responded giving a look to the two way mirror.

"See he doesn't hate you." Jill said to Cindy with a smirk.

"He's not doing it for me." Cindy smirked back.

"Claire you call Derek and let him know what we need him to do." Lindsay said, ignoring Cindy's last statement. The fact that Lindsay didn't deny it made Jill and Cindy laugh.


	5. Chapter 5

For the next two nights Cindy wandered around the park mumbling. "You know I am starting to look like the typical crazy homeless woman talking to herself."

"Nobody said you have to talk to me the whole time." came Lindsay's voice in her ear.

"This is boring. But I can shut up if you want."

"No you can't." Was Lindsay's sarcastic retort. "I was just kidding." She added when Cindy didn't jab back.

"Shh." I think I hear a woman screaming she said as she took off running.

"Shit, Cindy don't..." Lindsay said as she jumped out of the van. "Move in." She yelled into her radio.

Cindy followed the screams down a path but stopped cold when she saw two hooded boys standing in front of her. She turned to go back when another boy and a girl, with a video camera, came up behind her. "Shit, you just cost me twenty bucks." She put her hands on her hips and tried to catch her breath.

"What the hell are you talking about?" said one of the boys.

"Well you see, my friend at the District Attorney's office bet me that I was going to do something stupid while I was out here waiting for you to come back."

"Get a load of this guys, this bitch has some pretty powerful friends." He said as he raised his bat and moved toward her. "Unfortunately for you mine are more powerful."

Cindy tried to stay calm, "I'd rethink this if I were you."

"Man, maybe we should bail." Said another boy nervously.

"SFPD. Nobody move." Came Lindsay's voice from behind them and suddenly they were surrounded.

Cindy moved forward, "you might want to call daddy," she said looking directly into his eyes.

Within five minutes the four were handcuffed and being led away.

Lindsay walked over and punched Cindy on the shoulder. "ow. I'll give you ten if you don't tell Jill about this."

"Make it twenty and I'll think about it." Lindsay said as she put her arm around Cindy and led her back to the car.

* * *

The four friends met for lunch the next day to put this last case officially behind them. Cindy worked all night to get her article in the morning edition which, given the characters, was the talk of the town.

Vandeweghe and his friends were dumb enough to use the same bats in all of the attacks, so they contained plenty of physical evidence. The girl's video camera still held the attack of the latest victim, and the police technicians found the evidence to link the website to Joe Johnson.

"I'm sure they are all going to plead out. No way they want to take this to trial." Jill informed the group as she nibbled a fry. "And Judge Vandeweghe is going to take a leave of absence for a while."

"How's Derek?" Cindy asked.

"He's fine. I think Ed is having a harder time. He doesn't understand why Derek didn't come to us from the beginning. And he's pretty mad at me for waiting until it was over before I told him"

"I'm sure he'll come around. It all worked out." Cindy reassured.

"I'm just sorry you got put in the middle."

"Just doing my job." Cindy said as she stole a fry from Jill.

"Next time just stick to your job and leave mine to me" Lindsay replied with a frustrated sigh.

Cindy gave her a worried look, "Are you still mad at me?"

Lindsay wanted to go into her usual 'you need to be more careful' rant but when she saw how nervous Cindy looked she faltered. "No, I'm not. I just wish you would be more careful."

"I second that." Jill and Claire said in unison.

Cindy gave them a relieved smile, "I can't promise that I will succeed but I will try."

"That's all we are asking," Claire said as she raised her glass. And with that they toasted the end of another case.

When the meal was over Jill tossed the bill to Cindy. "What's this for?"

"You still owe me a twenty, I figure you buy lunch and we're good." Cindy shot Lindsay a look and got a shrug in reply. "Don't blame Lindsay, I bet her that you would bribe her."

Cindy dug into her wallet as her three friends left the table laughing.

* * *

Thanks to all those who read and reviewed.


End file.
